CHAPTER 4 - The Task
Harry sat and waited impatiently for Hermione in the Gryffindor common room. He looked up at the clock. 11:03. He waited for more than half an hour and Hermione still hadn't shown up. He sighed and lay down on the couch running his fingers through his through his untidy hair. He took off his glasses to wipe his somewhat watery eyes and pinched himself between them, which was now tightly shut. "Why isn't she here?" he said quietly to himself. "She must've not cared and taken this as one big joke. Or maybe she just forgot about me completely."
Harry sighed sadly again. "Looks like I'm not important enough for Ms. Granger to remember me."
His eyes became watery again. It pained him at the thought of Hermione forgetting about him and not showing up. "So this is what rejection feels like huh? Oh well. Better luck next time Harry."
He replaced his glasses back on his face and stared up at the ceiling continuing to talk to himself, feeling the color fade from his skin. "Who would've thought that loving someone would be so painful? I thought it was supposed to bring you happiness. Then why do I feel like…like this?"
He gave a very deep and long exhale, trying to blow out all his sadness. Tears of pain and sorrow slowly made its way back into his eyes. The pain was too overwhelming for him and he found himself closing his eyes and dozing off…
Harry had kept his eyes closed to what felt to him like forever. Not wanting to wake up in the day and having to see Hermione's face and confronting her. After some slow dreaming, he could feel someone shaking him, trying to wake him up.
"Harry? Harry?" whispered a soft, familiar voice from his right. He opened his eyes to find himself face-to-face with the Head Girl of Gryffindor House.
"Hermione?" he said uneasily, not knowing if he was still dreaming or not, sitting up.
"Yes Harry. Me."
"What time is it?"
"It's 3 in the morning Harry."
"Your late," he said bitterly, as he stood up in front of Hermione.
"I'm so sorry Harry," she said. And she truly looked it. "I couldn't leave because the other 7th year girls were getting conspicuous about me leaving in the middle of the night."
Harry blinked, saying nothing, giving her the signal to keep going. "They didn't," she continued, "fall sleep till about 2. I just lay down thinking that you weren't in the common room anymore. I couldn't sleep because I felt so bad about leaving you hanging like that. So, I just came down just to check and…here we are."
Harry continued to stare at Hermione, not sure whether to believe her or not. How could he stay mad at her? She looked so beautiful…even when apologizing. Harry just nodded his head and grinned, as if saying 'I forgive you'. Hermione looked so delighted when Harry smiled at her. She grinned back as if to give him an understanding that she knew her apology had been accepted.
"Well," she said, breaking the long silence, "what'd you want to talk about that's so important?"
"Oh!" exclaimed Harry. He had been so caught up in seeing her that he had almost forgot why he had asked her to meet him in the first place. "Are you…um…going to the…Yule Ball?"
"Yes I am Harry. Why?"
"With who?" he questioned, hoping that she would give him the right answer. She did.
"Nobody. I mean, no one has asked me."
Harry couldn't take it anymore. All the tension in his body was building and if he didn't say anything now, he would explode. "Wangoballwithme?" he said with his tongue all twisted, like when he asked Cho Chang to the Yule Ball in his 4th year.
"What?" Hermione replied, trying to look confused. Even though Harry hadn't said EXACTLY what he wanted to, she understood very well what he was trying to ask. "Weird." she thought , "I'm actually excited!"
"I didn't understand you Harry," she lied.
"Hermione, may I have the honor of taking you to the Yule Ball?" he said. "WOW!" he thought to himself, "where did that come from?"
Hermione herself looked shocked at the way Harry asked her to the Ball. But, she didn't even have to think to give him an answer.
"Of course Harry!" she softly shouted, "I'd love to go with you!" And with that, she threw her arms around him.
Harry, of course, thought this was going to be a lot harder than he thought. He just hugged Hermione back, feeling the warmth of her body. The hug soon broke, but they kept their arms around each other as their eyes met once again. They both stared at each other, as if they were experiencing an episode of love-at-first-sight. Harry felt this and so did Hermione. However, they dared not share what they were feeling.
Harry loved her for everything that she was. The bossy, always reading or studying, know-it-all, teacher's pet, Hermione. Not strictly because she was beautiful, smart, and helped him with his work. But because…you can't really pick and choose who you fall in love with. It just happens. And because there's an unexplainable reason why you fall in love.
"Hermione," said Harry, breaking their look, "we better head to bed and get some sleep."
Hermione nodded. With that, Harry took her hand and walked her up to the girls' dormitories. He was filled with too much adrenaline of love to hold anything back. At the door, Harry looked down at her, put his index finger under her chin to make her look at him, leaned down toward her, and kissed her on the cheek. "Night, Hermione." he replied.
It was her turn to be on the receiving end as she dreamingly smiled back at him. "Night Harry," she replied.
Harry turned around and slowly walked up to the boys' dormitories. He hadn't walked more than two-steps when Hermione called to him.
"Love you."
Harry stopped dead in his tracks. Taking in what he just heard. He, of course, didn't take it really big. More of a friendly 'love you' not knowing how Hermione really felt about him. He turned halfway around and replied, "I love you too, Hermione." and smiled.
She smiled back and opened the door to the girls' dorm and shut it behind her. Harry did the same, feeling very content with himself. As he changed and lay down in his bed, he had no trouble falling asleep as he dreamed about Hermione…
***
Hermione, on the other hand, was not falling asleep so well. She was too excited. Finally, she was going to a ball to someone she really knew and liked, this of course, being Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived. Her best friend for 7 years.
In their brief embrace back in the common, Hermione looked at Harry for the first time, not as a friend, but as a potential boyfriend. Yes, she too was in love with Harry, but too stupid to realize and admit it with all the stress of school. She remembered when she first started thinking of Harry as more than her best friend. It was when they were leaving Hogwarts after Harry's big confrontation with You-Know-Who. She was so happy that Harry was alive and so caught up in emotions that she gave him a kiss on the cheek right before they said good-bye. The reaction she got from Harry wasn't really what she wanted and that's when she realized to get over her feelings for him. Over the next few years, the feelings slowing went away. Not dying, but becoming dormant.
She had been getting inexplicable feelings when they entered their 7th year. Feelings since Viktor Krum was part of her life. She realized several things about Harry. How much nicer he had been to her than Ron at Hogwarts as the years went by, especially this year. The bitter look on his face anytime she would get TOO close to Ron. Looks of jealousy. But, of course, she buried this thought of her and Harry together. Anxiety got the best of her and she became scared to say anything, hiding her hidden love, worried that a friendship would be ruined. Scared that Harry didn't feel that same way she did. She remembered the time in their 4th year when there was a supposed love triangle between herself, Harry and Krum. Even though she, Ron, and Harry agreed that it was rubbish and it was just Rita Skeeter writing nonsense, deep down it was true. At least in her point of view.
She HAD begun to notice a change in Harry's behavior, particularly, around her. He had been giving signals that shown he was interested, but Hermione, being the person she was, took them for nothing more than mere signs of friendly affection, being that she was the only girl he really hung around with. "Could he REALLY be in love with me?" she thought to herself, as she sat on her bed.
She could recall times where there were possibilities that Harry could have liked her. It started from their 5th year around Christmas when Harry had given her (to her looks of it) a very cheap present. Sure, it was still the thought that counted, but it was nothing compared to what he had given her before. It was a small box of chocolates wrapped in brightly colored pink paper. Little did she know that that was only part of his gift to her. Later that night, after the Christmas feast, he pulled her into an empty corridor and took out a black box, which looked like a box for a wand, out of his pocket. When she opened it, she found, to her surprise, a golden necklace with a magical shade of scarlet red, matching their Gryffindor colors. The chain pattern of the necklace criss-crossed and intertwined in such a way that it spelled, in a cursive writing, "Hermione" going all the way around it. Attached to it was a dime-sized three-dimensional diamond heart.
"It's a Happiness-Charm Necklace," Harry explained, seeing the confused, yet happy look on her face. "The heart pendant on it glows light blue when the wearer becomes happy. The brighter the color, the happier the person is. The thing special about it is, I've charmed it to only abide by how YOU feel." Sure enough, just like Harry had said, the pendant begun to glow a bright blue, about the same shade of blue that Hermione was so fond of.
"Thank you SO much Harry!" exclaimed Hermione, giving him the biggest hug ever. "This is the best present that I've ever got."
Harry only had one request. Whenever she would wear it, she would have to wear it hidden under the collar of her shirt, keeping it out of sight. If anyone by any chance would see it, she didn't get it from Harry. There were reasons for this, as Harry explained, that he didn't want people knowing that he sent that kind of money on her, but to him, it was well worth it. She accepted without hesitation. She realized that it would glow its brightest on two different occasions. When she got high marks and whenever she was around Harry. She also realized that the pendant glowed brighter and brighter each day she say Harry.
As the Valentines ball came nearer, she noticed as how upset Harry was when he witnessed Ron ask her to the ball right in from of him. He tried not to show is anger, but rather faked his happiness for Ron and her. Hermione saw right threw him and asked herself, "Why was Harry so upset? Shouldn't he be happy for Ron instead? Was he showing signs of…jealousy?" This made Hermione smile on the inside. Not because Harry was upset, but because it was cute and sweet that Harry was jealous of Ron for asking her. However, it pained her to see him like that.
At the ball, she kept looking over at Harry, seeing his distraught look one after another. He had attended with Parvati Patil. After talking with Ron to see if it was ok, she got up and when over to Harry and offered him a dance, which he happily took. She noticed how many cheers, hoots, oh' s, and ah's, were shouted as they made their way on the dance floor. Harry, feeling proud and slightly flustered, felt insecure, not pulling Hermione close to him, but rather holding her away from his body. And they danced, one hand on Hermione's waist and one hand on Harry's shoulder, very nervously as it looked sloppy and very stiff. But Hermione didn't care, as long as Harry was happy.
In their 6th year, Harry had become very sour at Hermione as she had forgotten the necklace he had given her at home. This wasn't like her, as she wore it at the time but took it off one summer when she had gone swimming to avoid losing it in the water and not to get it dirty. Of course, Harry did all he could to hide his emotions and told all that nothing was wrong. Filled with sadness and rejection, he ignored her. Not zoning her out completely, but not being as friendly as before. Hermione knew that Harry felt sad and rejected that she forgot the necklace. She did everything in her power to get it back and when she did, Harry had returned to his normal, friendly self.
7th year is when things started to really heat up. Harry had been EXTRA nice to her since they meet at Kings Cross to board the Hogwarts Express. He had offered to carry her books and drag along her trunk for her. She also noticed that he was spending quite a bit of time talking to her and not Ron, sort of ignoring him. However, Harry and Hermione were both informed by Owl Post that they would be Head Boy and Head Girl together for Gryffindor that summer. They both happily flashed their badges to each other when they told each other the news. This could have explained Harry's attitude change toward her as they would have to be sort of partners now. And it came down to Harry asking her to the upcoming Yule Ball. Something definitely was up with Harry. Hermione just had the know the truth herself.
As she came back from her trip down memory lane, she looked down and pulled out, from under her shirt, the necklace Harry had given her. It would be the first time in a long time where she really looked at it and it was glowing very brightly. The brightest she had ever seen it glow.
"Hermione," she thought to herself, "you're being stupid! You're think far too ahead of yourself! Harry was just doing all those things because he's your friend! And its logical that everyone thinks you two are together. He doesn't really hang out with any other girl. And why in the world did you say, 'Love you" for!? You're really going to mess things up! And don't worry, you should be happy. Harry's friendship means too much to you to risk going out with him… "
A tear slowly ran down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and smiled. As she lay down on her bed, gripping the pendant tightly in her hand, she found it a whole lot easier to fall asleep. Whatever she dreamed, whether it be studying for Transfiguration, being in the library, or taking a walk outside, she always found herself coming face-to-face with the untidy, raven-haired, emerald green-eyed, Head Boy of Gryffindor.